Kholat

Kholat tries to be everything – a survival, a horror, a first person walker. It might have worked well if all those elements had been polished properly. [08/2015, p.66]

If the writing were cleaned up and the scares implemented a bit more effectively, Kholat would be better able to take advantage of its unique, real-world premise. As it is, only the most ardent fans of exploration games are likely to find much to enjoy.

Kholat is genuinely scary, sometimes to its detriment. You will have to push yourself to continue playing at times.

For better or worse, this game REALLY brings out the fun of actually being lost in the mountains. I’ll leave that to your interpretation.

Overall an enjoyable experience that has a fantastic presentation but just lacks much depth in gameplay.

Kholat is a Horror experience game with a first person perspective. It has many gameplay issues but its main problem is the lack of fear and strong emotions that any Horror experience should be able to create.

There's an interesting atmosphere of anxiety in Kholat, effectively keeping us in front of the screens - that's biggest advantage of the game. On the other hand, developers quickly ran out of ideas that would make the exploration easier and more interesting. Still, Imgn.pro's debut is largely successful.

The premises were interesting for a different horror experience, but the slow pace and the frustrating gameplay often spoil the good time.

If you’re really, truly desperate for a new adventure-horror game in the vein of Dear Esther and you consider yourself to literally have the patience of a saint, at the very least Kholat will look and sound pretty as you play it. Anyone who doesn’t want to deal with tedious gameplay, a confusing story, or frustrating progress roadblocks however should steer clear.

The world of Kholat is magnificent, but the promises of a cool story and memorable gaming experience do not really come true. Using the map and compass are fun, but frustration and boredom are near. Too bad, because especially the Dyatlov Pas-incident is a good subject for a game.

Visually stunning, but a slog to play through. [Issue#164, p.90]

The exploring horror game is inspired by real events and offers a great chilling atmosphere. Gameplay part of the horror is merely average unfortunately.

Sound, controls, graphics and Sean Bean - all fine. But it's just not scary enough and has a weak story which is bad for a horror game.

KHOLAT nails the experience of being atop a snowy mountain during volatile conditions, and the idea of it being based on a true story is intriguing. Ultimately, though, the execution falls short and you’re left with a shallow experience that is hard to find the fun in.

With such an interesting story and a great narrator, Kholat truly dropped the ball in what could have been a great narrative, instead delivering nonsense dialogue and an incomprehensible plot.

A good attempt to offer a different approach to terror, though somewhat diluted because of repetition on its mechanics and a lack of originality.

Kholat is a visually wonderful horror game that allows players to give their own explanation of the events. It is however frustrating because of limited movements, unavoidable deaths and an unclear plot.

A great narrative experience but rather dull from a gameplay standpoint. [Aug 2015, p.62]

Kholat's narrative exploration is ambitious, and the real world base for its plot, the recreation of exploring a bewildering and unforgiving landscape and the audio-visual design were all superb. But for what it gets right, the mounting flaws in its design only become more evident and distracting.

Kholat is a great looking game that can capture the imagination of players very quickly with its impressive environments and with the initial narrative about the real world set of events on which it is based. Unfortunately, the developers have failed to find a way to keep interest up in the long term and the inability move at will across the landscape and the limited functionality associated with the map quickly become frustrating.

Good graphics and tense situations can't really save the player from the slow and tedious exploration and the cheap deaths. This kind of devices aren't exactly great from a game design standpoint, and relegate this product to a meager passing grade.